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Ysses and Yorrik listened patiently to a long rummage and several loud crashes.
“Would an Adas Anti-Synthetic Rifle work?” asked Anax finally, slightly out of breath.
Affirmative, Analyst Therion. The safety indicator, scope light, and ammunition gauge all utilize thionin acetate.
“I must admit, I’m positively invested in this family,” mused Borbala Ferank. “Guns, booze, toys, and a junior science fair.”
“Dry wit: Sounds like a quarian to me,” said Yorrik, who was beginning to worry that this was taking so long. They had to report back to Senna’Nir in a few hours. He glanced down at the frozen corpses nervously. He did not like the look of those sores on the drell neck-frills. He did not like them at all. There were so many of them.
“Amonkira walks by my side on this morning,” said the drell with a raspy, rather pretty laugh. She corrected herself. “Still not morning. Once more unto the hunting grounds, K?”
Ruthenium dichloride is most often used together in commercial canning, preserving, bottling, and labeling, though it is toxic to asari, humans, and salarians.
“Quarian nutrient paste doesn’t require much in the way of preservation,” Anax said doubtfully. “I don’t think we’re going to find any jars of jam in here. Most of our food stores were meant to be supplied by the Nexus and the Pathfinder worlds. Maybe in the other cargo holds. I did not want to go through the luggage records if we did not have to. There are twenty thousand of us. We’ll be in the Andromeda galaxy before we finish paging through every copy of Fornix someone just had to bring along.”
They heard Borbala Ferank’s phlegmy chuckle coming through loud and clear. “Yeah, we don’t need to. My favorite mummy brought herself that crate of Horosk, even though she’s a naughty little war beast who knew it wasn’t allowed. I’ve bought and sold more Horosk bottles than you want to know about. You can see the cork from space. Try something harder next time, you great hulking boat.”
Veridium tricupridase, or Drell Belly Green no. 15, is widely used in toy and jewelry fabrication.
“Taken care of. The easiest one yet. Rhodamine is the last, yes? Honestly, my dear Yorrik, when you said fluorescent dyes, I thought there was no hope. Perhaps there is a rough luck in this universe, after all. Where can we scavenge our rhodamine, K?”
Yorrik marveled at how expressive the drell’s voice was. He had no trouble understanding her, as he often did with aliens who insisted on speaking to communicate. The elcor could hear her smile through six decks between them.
Rhodamine was once a popular choice for laser etching and engraving, but is no longer favored by contemporary artists, due to its rarity. I am not aware of any mercantile exchange that advertises rhodamine in its inventory. It cannot be “commonly found.”
Yorrik fumed. He’d known at least half of those. He’d have remembered in another minute or two. Of course the computer could come up with the answer. But the Keelah Si’yah didn’t need an audience to thrive. A computer didn’t need applause. And it didn’t matter in the end. The ship didn’t have the final answer any more than he did.
“And where,” came the rough, velvet, unbothered voice of the drell detective, “might it be uncommonly found?”
Rhodamine can be found in mineral deposits on the moons of Xathorron in the Attican Beta system, in several outdated salarian vaccines, and was briefly popular as a lip stain among the asari. It can also be extracted from some species of bioluminescent deep-sea fish, such as the belan jellyfish, khar’shan snapping eel, and thessian sunfish, Analyst Therion.
“Wounded sarcasm: Good thing the Initiative built an ark for all those Thessian Sunfish who longed to leave it all behind and start their lives over again. I imagine it’s right behind us.”
The hanar chimed in. “This one knows you are all aware that all pets were classified as contraband by the Quorum.”
“Disgruntled response: What kind of fool takes pet fish to space? They’d be dead before the first week was out. Dismissive pessimism: I assure you, there are no little cryo fishbowls full of iced eels on board. With insincere warmth: Unless you want to show us how the ship’s computer can make tropical fish appear out of nothing, Ysses.”
There was a long uncomfortable silence. The hanar glimmered. The elcor loomed.
Then the lights came on.
Medbay was flooded with blinding white light as Senna’Nir and Irit Non shut down the energy-saving program and fired up the power of the Keelah Si’yah.
The light flickered. Medbay went completely black. No calming blue running lights. Utter darkness.
The commander’s voice joined the already crowded comm channel.
“How’s that, Yorrik, better?” Senna said warmly.
“Weary sarcasm: Perfect.”
Irit Non’s phlegmy voice came through the comm. “Command node reports all power restored to medbay.”
“This antechamber is as dark as the end of hope,” mused Ysses.
Non growled. “I’m looking right at the sensors. It says full power restored. K, status report: lighting and temperature control, Deck Nine.”
Hibernation-setting power protocols revoked for Deck 14. Temperature increasing. Full habitat lighting in use.
